“We have been observing a reduction in exports in Iran and Venezuela… Venezuela has managed, from the data I have seen, to keep production exports above a million barrels a day. There’s a redirection of some of their exports, some of those barrels are going to Asia versus the US West Coast. The market remains supplied with Venezuelan barrels,” al-Falih said.

READ MORE: Top Iranian Official Blames US For Oil Market Volatility

Commenting on the oversupply, he said that this situation will remain for a long time “and forecast to be long for the rest of the year as I see it.”

Khalid al-Falih also urged participants of the OPEC-non-OPEC oil output cut deal to “stay on course” of complying with the recently-agreed commitments.

“My assessment is that job still remains ahead of us, we are nowhere near complete in terms of restoring fundamentals, we are still seeing inventory builds in OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development], certainly the US remains significantly above normal levels,” Falih said at a press conference after the meeting of the Joint Technical Committee.

© AP Photo / Fernando Llano

US Envoy Claims Venezuelan Oil Production Drop Not Due to American Sanctions

The Saudi minister added that there was a need “to stay on course certainly until June, but we remain to continue monitoring supply and demand and do what’s necessary to keep the markets balanced.”His remarks come after on 7 December, participants of the OPEC-non-OPEC oil output cut deal agreed to reduce overall production by 1.2 million barrels per day for six months starting from 2019.